Elon Musk proposes 30-minute, planet-hopping travel with the BFR

Elon Musk has revealed SpaceX’s plans to debut planet-hopping travel through the use of an interplanetary rocket system.

Though many of Elon Musk’s ideas have centered on sending humankind either into space or onto Mars, the SpaceX and Tesla entrepreneur today announced a new venture that will place human feet back on terra firma in both a figurative and literal sense.

Ending a jam-packed appearance that saw Musk unveil revised plans to reach both the Moon and Mars, the business mogul revealed plans to leverage SpaceX’s Big F*cking Rocket (BFR, for short) to ferry passengers to any destination on Earth within an hour’s time frame.

Musk’s proposal would see passengers board mega-rockets, launch into orbit, and then settle down on floating landing pads in a destination of their choice. Though both the rocket and landing pad are at this stage conceptual, Musk clarified that construction would begin within the next six to nine months.

SpaceX debuted a video presentation outlining the concept, wherein passengers would board the BFR, launch, and then land in Shanghai within 39 minutes – covering an immense 11,000 kilometers.

The company touched on different destinations, outlining that a proposed trip from Hong Kong to Singapore would theoretically take 22 minutes, while travelers heading from London to New York could expect a 29-minute journey.

As the concept (at this stage) is untested, Musk did not deign to offer specifics – though the entrepreneur did clarify that the BFR would reach a top speed of 18,000 miles per hour (some 28000 kilometers per hour) and would carry passengers akin to how most of us leverage economy air travel.

The announcement is yet another of Musk’s bids to revolutionize travel; another concept presently in the works is that of the Hyperloop, a proposed system of sealed tubes through which a pod would be able to travel through free of air resistance or friction.

I’m in total agreement. There’s also the big fundamental problem of how (safely) re-usable these rockets are – if they have a limited lifespan it’s not a system I believe would have the same longevity as conventional airlines!

Lawrence H

Good point Bryan. The technology is still in the early stages but another problem with large rockets is the vibrational shock during lift-off. Apparently the Apollo astronauts said that it was like being inside a train wreck during lift-off, and especially after stage one separation! The forces are so high that only the strongest and fittest would survive….